Toward photocatalytic hydrogen generation over BiVO4 by controlling particle size

Abstract

Owing to excellent light absorption and high activity for oxygen evolution, monoclinic bismuth vanadate (BiVO4) is regarded as an ideal candidate for photocatalytic water splitting. However, its application is limited by the large particle size in micrometer scale, as well as the slightly positive conduction band. In this work, we successfully synthesized nano-BiVO4 with particle size ranged from 27 nm to 57 nm by wet chemical method based on electrostatic spinning method. Unlike bulk BiVO4, the nano-sized BiVO4 possesses the ability to generate hydrogen by water splitting, and the activity could reach up to 1.66 μmol h−1 g−1 with the assistance of Pt. The enhanced activity is mainly attributed to the improvements resulted from reduced particle size, which includes elevated conduction band, enlarged specific surface area and promoted charge separation. This work provides a simple method for synthesizing photocatalyst with small particle size and high yield.